Ten Orifi and Some Grout

Technically, the plural for orifice is orifices, I think, but orifi is more fun to say.  Orifi also sounds like the super legion of special day-time orcs that Sarumon sends after Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, but that's not the kind of orifi I'm talking about.  I'm talking about doors and windows, which is even more exciting, right?  

Check out our brand new storm door in the photo above.  No matter how much caulk I put on the door we installed, I never could keep water from seeping in around the base of the door frame during a hard rain.  Hopefully the new storm door, which also has a screen behind the glass, will fix this problem and allow us to have more airflow in the house by using it as a screen door.  See, I told you it was exciting!

In this photo, you can see the two new windows on the second floor on the left, and the old windows that Brandon was getting ready to replace on the right.  The old windows were neat.  They were made of wood and had those cool rope pulleys with heavy weights on them to balance the window when it was open.   But, after much thought, we decided to sacrifice the old windows, which were single pane and full of gaps, in the name of energy efficiency and put in new windows.  The new windows look nice too, and they are much easier to open and close, but they aren't made of wood and are very plain.  At least I won't have to scrape lead paint and worry about keeping them painted.  

In this photo Brandon is showing me the prep work he did to the holes in the house in order to get a moisture barrier on the new windows.  I had a hard time paying attention because the room was a disaster!  The last time I saw it, it was open and relatively clean.   After a week of window work, without me to pick up after him, it looks like a hurricane blew through.  How can so much junk be generated from window replacement?  

Since Brandon has been working upstairs so much, Puck figured out how to navigate the stairs.  I was surprised that his old hips were willing and able, and thought his short legs would insure I had a dog-hair free zone in our house.  But, I thought his cute corgi butt was adorable as it bounced down the steps on his stubby little legs, so I will forgive him for shedding.    

Here you can see the two new windows that Brandon put in on the back side of the house, upstairs.  I think we are done with windows.  I counted, and for this house project we have put in nine windows and one door - that's ten house orifi!  Er, orifices... orificia? 

After a brief stint on the slanted metal roof, where he kept sliding, Brandon changed his tactics and did most of the window trim from the inside by sticking his arms and head out the window.  Muscle strain from working in an awkward position is better than broken bones from sliding off the roof!  

While Brandon was messing around playing slip'n slide on the roof and making giant holes in the house, I had work to do.  After spending a few minutes watching a video from the interweb, with a helpful little fella who says "grou-oot" instead of grout, Kentucky style, I was ready to grou-oot the bathroom tile.  Ugh.  Grout may be harder on my body than back buttering.  

Mixing the grout, and squishing it between the tiles isn't so bad, the hard part is wiping off the the excess with a damp sponge.  Okay, so it doesn't sound so terrible when you say it like that, but my knees and back thought it was pretty tough.  And my finger nails were ruined.  Ruined, I say!

In the photo above, the grout is still wet, so it's a little darker than it ended up after it dried.  Also, the tile needs to be mopped to get the last of the grout haze off.  When I was sitting on the floor sponging grout from the tile, I thought my grout lines were a little sloppy and uneven, but when I look from a distance it looks okay to me.  Hopefully I won't spend too much time laying on the bathroom floor in the future,so I should be satisfied with my job.